Reduce Your Commuting Costs with the Commuter Tax Benefit
Perhaps you are thinking about busing, carpooling or vanpooling and need another financial incentive to get you motivated. Perhaps you are an employer looking for ways to encourage your employees to use sustainable transportation to get to work.
Either way, you should definitely check out the Commuter Choice Tax Benefit.
A little about the benefit:
“The law allows employers to give their workers up to $115 each month for transit or vanpool commuting costs as a tax-free benefit. It also allows employers to give employees the option to use payroll deductions to avoid paying taxes on up to $115 a month in commuting costs. Alternatively, employers can share these costs with their workers by paying part of their monthly commuting costs and letting workers pay the balance using pre-tax dollars. Either way, both employers and their employees can save money by participating in this simple plan.”
Check it all out here: http://www.apta.com/research/info/online/paystoride.cfm
Interesting idea!
Although, if workers would just move closer to work, they could pocket a lot more.
For example, a commuter driving 25 miles to work spends an average of $5800 per year - which is money down the drain. If, however, they moved 20 miles closer to work, and bought a $50,000 to $60,000 more expensive home with their commuting expenses saved and they would be no-the-worse for it financially.
In addition, the extra money they put toward their mortgage payment would add up to a lot more than the $115 per month offered via this credit.
More details at http://www.costofcommuting.com
Comment by Joel McDonald — June 29, 2008 @ 10:37 pm